The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-05-05
A NILE EXCURSION.
MINISTER COX DESCRIBES SOME IN
TERESTlNG EXPERIENCES.

Ancient One-HandIed Plough-A Plague
of Flies-The Buffalo.
The railroad trip to Asyoot is not to be
forgotten. We had been in Egypt before,
but never beyond Cairo. or the pyramids
of Ghiza. so that the scenes on the railroad
travel were novel, diverting and interest
ing Having an apartment or carriage 10
ourselves we placed our portmanteaus on
the seat and mounted thereon as want
age situation, and for eight hours, from
q. M till evening, we gazed out OF the
windows at the strangeneSs OF the pano-
rama with its constantly changing colors
and FORMS Remember, it Is winter
mid February. The grain harvest Is
nearly ripe. The cotton is picked; only
few bolIs remain in the fields. The sugar
cane is being cut and carried on donkey,
camels and cars to the sugar factories
The long stalks are seen everywhere. The
little big bellied Arab boys, in utter max
edness, are grinding the succulent, sac
charine stalks between their glisteniug
upper and neither teeth. Every one on the
route has long sugar carrying one
end in the mouth. The flies are settling
thick around the juicy orifices The air Is
pregnant with the expression OF the cane
The sugar factories are at work. The
fumes not only add their fragrance, but
the long iron chimneys give their pecu
liar business look to the landscape.
TIE PEOPLE OF THE NILE.
There were other peculiarities Tor Wnlcn
the car was point of observation. Not
the costumes of the people, for they
seemed uniformly Of dark or blue bour'
nous. The sexes are hardly distinguish
able from each other, except by the
mustache, beard or turban. There Is
much nakedness or nearly so. After an
eager glance towards the pyramids OF
Sakarrah, near old Memphis, the multi
tudinous mud huts and villages appear,
Palms in abundance everywhere plume
themselves in their stately beauty. The
soil is being ploughed in places for the
new crop. The people are said to be IN
dustrious but everywhere we see them
sitting under walls, in the shade, and
covered with fies-eyes, ears, face, hands,
feet covered with flies. The animal life
seems to move as slowly as if it had ages
to do lifetime of work The buffalo Is
very unlike our almost obsolete big
headed species. It is seen in the fields
ploughing with the old one-handled
plough of the time of Setis or turning the
water wheel At distance, and espect-
ally when cooling in the water, it looks
like q pachyderm. In fact, its brown
black tough hide, ungainly form and hide
Gus face, to which the horn gives sinister
expression, make him an object of curious
interest. Here and there we observe
shepherds, generally children with shep-
herd dogs. Some are Bedouins, with tents
of cameI-hair, black and dirty. They have
docks Of sheep and goats, and often M -led
1ocks. There are generally donkey and
yellow dog and plenty of naked children.
Yellow and white flowers are already be-
decking the meadows.
At various times on the railroad we OBJ
tanned glimpses Of the white and yellow
stands; and the peculiar masts, of the da-
Il hair OF
more quaint sails Ridges and plains OF
sands soon give way to villages, which
are the sign and sight Of palm groves.
On both sides of the valley of the Nile
lone, arid and tawny mountains appear.
They are pictures not unlike the desert OF
Moab-out of whose wilderness the Bap-
tist came. They are the shaggy barriers
Of the fruitful valley. For such fences as
are needed to separate the fields, the
cane, interviewer, makes tolerable pre-
text of protection. 1t would not turn a
"resolute" rabbit. Everywhere are seen
stakes, indicating metes and bounds and
proprietorship, which have to be received
when the Nile food disappears. Old well
sweeps are seen, such as were common in
Ohio in my boyhood. They lift the later
out of the soft soil to the surface. The
bottom of the well is, of course, on a level
with the river, and, as l said, the river is
everything to Egypt. 1t is now quite low;
still, the fields have ponds in them; but
the pond water does not seem stagnant
Indeed the people use the water for
every urpose-cooking, washing, bath
ing, etc.
PLAGUE OF FLIES.
After the buffalo, for number and uti[
ity, come the donkey and camel. had
no idea that the donkey was such a "daisy"
IN Egypt. Bridleless and saddleless, he
will amble gaily with family on his YER
tebrae. He is as patient and as meek as If
his burden were nothing Sometimes you
do not see his legs and only parts of his
ears when he is loaded down with sugar
cane or grasses. l send you with this a
picture of him-loaded-witho only his ears
protruding. The camel looks as usual,
sinful" and moves in mysterious way,
as if he grudged every time he lifted his
foot.
FL should be called on to name the
most vital element of Egypt it would not
be the buffalo, donkey, camel, ostrich OF
man. It would be the flies. 1t was win
ter, but they were as plentiful as in the
time of summer or of the plaques. In the
eighth chapter OF Exod US it is said that
the Lord did according to the word OF
Moses, and he removed the swarms of flies
from Pharaoh, from his servants, and
from his people; there remained not one"
What relfefl mot one" That was
near 600 years ago. They have accumu-
lated since enormously. The infantile
death rate is due mostly to flies. On the
vessel or in the mud-hut, in temple or
town-f1ies From Thinite. first dynasty,
200 B. c., to the time of the present cour-
teous and unselflSh khedive-hieS The
ban, Bubastile, Salte, Ethiopian, Mace
DOMAIN, Greek, Loman and Mahometan
dynasties - flies From the tinniest
huzzer to the biggest blue-bottle
-fiesl Touching with dainty foot
and prehenslle grip the beauteous eye
lash of Cleopatra; biting with chivaIric
intrepidity through the harness of God
frey de Bouillon, and pursuing with .
"nipping air" Persian, Hermann Syrian,
and Room as they fit through history
flies rs. S. COx's Letter in New York
World.
A Novel Flower on the Isthmus.
A novel flower has been found on the
isthmus Of Tehuantepec, at the San jose
hacienda, some twenty-five leagues from
the CITY of Tehuantepec. This floral